He-Man & She-Ra - A Christmas Special

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Do He-Man and She-Ra have the combined power to defeat the forces of other holidays and champion the merits of Christmas? This DVD says yes.

By Kyle Watson

There's been a lot of squabbling in the news lately concerning the replacement of Merry Christmas with Happy Holidays and a general de-emphasis on Christmas in public forums. Yes, it seems everyone's favorite religious/ secular/ commercial/ spiritual/ greedy/ giving holiday is under attack. Retailers are shying away from previously traditional gestures such as mandatory Santa hats on employees and "Merry Christmas" printed at the top of your receipt. So what can be done? Who among us has the strength, wit, and most importantly the power to save Christmas?

If you said He-Man and She-Ra, go get your self a Christmas cookie. That's right, just in time for the Christmas season, BCI and Entertainment Rights continue their wonderful re-releasing of all things He-Man with He-Man and She-Ra - A Christmas Special, a 45-minute yuletide adventure featuring almost every character in the He-Man universe - including a few never seen again.

It's winter time in Eternia and it's time for Prince Adam (He-Man) and Princess Adora's (She-Ra) birthday. All of Eternia and most of Etheria (She-Ra's neck of the woods in the He-Man universe) have come together for a celebration. While Man-At-Arms and Prince Adam are working on a new rocket ship, Orko plays with the controls and sends himself into outer space. Eventually crash landing on Earth, Orko befriends two Earth children and brings them back to Eternia; needless to say it doesn't take long for the kids to spread the joy of Christmas, and offer a few religious insights in the process. Yes, though it happens mostly off camera, the children tell Orko the story of Christ's birth in this publicly broadcast children's program. As someone who was a kid during the time in which most Americans assumed their neighbors were exclusively Christian, I can't help but be slightly nostalgic for a more blissfully ignorant time.

Naturally, all this good will towards men disrupts the evil forces in Eternia and Horde-Prime, so Hordak and Skeletor look to put an end to the Christmas spirit. He-Man and She-Ra do battle with the usual gang of villains, along with Filmmation's brief answer to The Transformers, The Monstroids. Additionally, they perform perhaps the worst holiday song ever committed to analog tape. I won't ruin the rest of the set's surprises for any fans who may have missed this special when it first aired in 1985, but I'll just say that by the end, most of Eternia seems to have been swayed toward celebrating Christmas, and Skeletor discovers his cheerful side (naturally not liking what he finds).

As far as He-Man and She-Ra cross-overs go, this is one of the strongest. Not only do we get to see the royal twins together, on their birthday no less, but we also see almost every major character from the two shows interacting. Sure, a few key characters get pushed to the side, but with only 45 minutes of run time it's understandable. Also, the gender preferences of both shows are emphasized by the seeing characters intermingled. The He-Man crew is far more masculine with titles such as Man-At-Arms and Battlecat, while She-Ra characters have names like Perfuma and Glimmer. It's the kind of long forgotten separate-but-equal gender bias that created common ground between the boys and girls while pointing out their differences at the same time.

What <he -Man and She-Ra A Christmas Special may lack in modern sensitivity and religious inclusion it makes up for with its campy exuberance and the notion that the Christmas spirit can melt even a villains heart. Now that I think of it Christmas is the prefect holiday for a <he -Man special. Being that the show was always a toy commercial its perfectly logical to make a longer episode featuring all the new toys out that season and tie it in with the largest spending holiday of the year. As easy as it is to be smug about the crass commercialism of the whole He-Man series, I would be lying if I said I didn't want a Snake Mountain action play-set under my tree this year. Score: 9 out of 10 The Video BCI has done a great job of restoration with previous He-Man sets, and this one is no different. Naturally, there are some basic flaws in the original animation and coloring but no more than any other cartoon from the era. The image holds up well on most televisions, though the image gets a little soft on high-end sets. Score: 8 out of 10 The AudioHe-Man was never the kind of program to win best sound production awards, and this special hold true. The atmosphere of a scene is often disrupted when the ambience on one character's voice track is completely different from the rest. But none of the audio flaws are due to a lack of competence in the DVD production, just old content. The show is presented in dolby stereo with an optional Spanish language track. Score: 7 out of 10 Extras and Packaging As with the previous sets, BCI has gone above and beyond the call of duty for a 20+ year old cartoon show. Starting with two mini documentaries, continuing the 16 hour documentary spread out over the various sets, about the moral issues in He-Man and the development of the characters from basic toys to fully realized characters. Together they pack a total of 68 minutes of info-tainment. The subject matter of these docs might not be the most compelling, but considering this special is a footnote to whole He-Man and She-Ra series it's understandable they wouldn't choose the best segments for this release. Also present is the long lost music video made by Filmation to promote the introduction of She-Ra "I Have The Power." It was clearly thrown together from the most obvious of recycled animation, and somehow He-Man is voiced by the wimpiest sounding guy possible. The whole song is about the power of love, which by the visuals and lyrics doesn't seem to end with the love a brother and sister feel for each other. It may not be great, or even good, but just the fact that it was produced is endlessly hilarious. It's sure to come in handy the next time you have to clear out a party or want to annoy your neighbors with some heavy synthesizer rockin'. There are also a few other features worth your time, including a montage of the morals that always appeared at the end of the show. Out of the shows context they even seem a little seedier, the first one is about a character who tried to change her life by drinking a "magical potion". There's more character profiles, mainly for the She-Ra characters not covered by the bios in the He-Man season one, volume one set. Some fun facts offer mild insight, but might help you figure who or what the "manchines" are. The original script for the show is also included as a .PDF file. Overall, a strong showing of features for a long forgotten cartoon holiday special. Score: 9 out of 10